yesterday (well, sunday...I'm posting this at just after midnight on tuesday) it was nearly 80 degrees, sunny, and dry. i put up all my winter sweaters (both of 'em), and wore sandals and short sleeves out to lunch. but that was yesterday.
but time passes, and as often happens in austin, tx, tonight is a whole new season.
so i just walked outside and chipped down to my driveway...there's between 3/4 and 1 inch of solid ice under the sleet-topped covering...i'm wearing the sweater that just last night i put up in the top of the closet. we had to switch from a/c back to gas heat. on the positive side, the dandelions growing in the back yard which were until this morning the size of your average three-year-old, should die from exposure. (take that chem-lawn!)
i believe i'll be waiting before driving into work tomorrow. while I have great faith in my own ice-driving skills -- which were honed in the midwest in a 455 big-block rear-wheel drive vehicle with no power steering or power breaks -- the tiremarks, bumper-mangled bush, and tiny shards of bumper and headlight-plastics crossing from my neighbor's yard into mine tells me that i should not place similar faith in any other drivers...
the risks are increased by the uniquely localized problem with trucks and sport utilities. you see, here, in austin, there is seldom a need for 4-wheel drive. but there are probably more large trucks and sport-utilities sold per capita to texas guys and soccer moms (respectively) than in any other large city (excluding dallas, houston, and maybe san antonio). given the relatively warm, unnasty weather, most of said trucks and sport-utilities are, of course, 2-wheel drive. but people here seem to think truck, sport utility, and 4wd are all synonymous.
thus, to drive in this weather is to put your life in the hands of all the 2wd f250 drivers who think "oversized truck" means "capable of driving normal speeds on solid sheets of black ice."
so i'll be hiding in my home until the spring thaw. which, according to local weather reports, should happen around 11am tomorrow morning.
"texas seasons..."
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